Based on the findings of a large-scale, comparative research project, this volume systematically assesses the institutional design and national influence of the Open Method of Coordination in Social Inclusion and Social Protection (pensions and health/long-term care), at the European Union level and in ten EU Member States.
The development of non-binding new governance methods has challenged the traditional ideals of EU law by suggesting that soft norms and executive networks may provide a viable alternative. Rather than see law and new governance as oppositional projects, Mark Dawson argues that new governance can be seen as an example of legal 'transformation', in which soft norms and hard law institutions begin to cohabit and interact. He charts this transformation by analysing the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) for Social Inclusion and Protection. While this process illustrates some of the concrete advantages for EU social policy which new governance has brought, it also illustrates their extensive legitimacy challenges. Methods like the OMC have both excluded traditional institutions, such as Courts and Parliaments, and altered the boundaries of domestic constitutional frameworks. The book concludes with some practical suggestions for how a political 'constitutionalisation' of new governance could look.
Sixty years after its invention, the operational system of the European Union remains little-understood. The 'Community Method' provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of the functioning and achievements of the EU.
Büchs analyses the goals and instruments of the Open Method of Coordination, discusses approaches which theorize its functioning, examines its policy content and develops a framework for its evaluation. Through the examination of a case study the author demonstrates how policy actors apply the OMC in employment in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,3, University of Cologne (Europa: Politik und Jura), course: Action against EoFin, 51 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Die Arbeit problematisiert die Schwierigkeiten einer gesamteurop ischen Sozialpolitik im Lichte der sog. Offenen Methode der Koordinierung (engl. Open Method of Coordination). Wie funktioniert dieses neue Instrument europ ischer Politik, welche konkreten Erfahrungen wurden bisher gesammelt, und hat die Offene Methode der Koordinierung das Potenzial eine gesamteurop ische Sozialpolitik zu erm glichen? Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt Antworten auf diese Fragen und problematisiert das Thema im Lichte der aktuellen Wohlfahrtsstaatsforschung.
This book offers an empirical and theoretical account of the mode of governance that characterizes the Bologna Process. In addition, it shows how the reform materializes and is translated in everyday working life among professors and managers in higher education. It examines the so-called Open Method of Coordination as a powerful actor that uses “soft governance” to advance transnational standards in higher education. The book shows how these standards no longer serve as tools for what were once human organizational, national or international, regulators. Instead, the standards have become regulators themselves – the faceless masters of higher education. By exploring this, the book reveals the close connections between the Bologna Process and the EU regarding regulative and monitoring techniques such as standardizations and comparisons, which are carried out through the Open Method of Coordination. It suggests that the Bologna Process works as a subtle means to circumvent the EU’s subsidiarity principle, making it possible to accomplish a European governance of higher education despite the fact that education falls outside EU’s legislative reach. The book’s research interest in translation processes, agency and power relations among policy actors positions it in studies on policy transfer, policy borrowing and globalization. However, different from conventional approaches, this study draws on additional interpretive frameworks such as new materialism.
The contributors in this volume examine the practical operations, at national and subnational levels, of the European Employment and Social Inclusion Strategies, which are the most important examples of the Open Method of Co-ordination as a new instrument of EU governance.
New technologies with the potential to improve the health of populations are continuously being introduced. But not every technological development results in clear health gains. Health technology assessment provides evidence-based information on the coverage and usage of health technologies, enabling them to be evaluated properly and applied to health care efficaciously, promoting the most effective ones while also taking into account organizational, societal and ethical issues. This book reviews the relationship between health technology assessment and policy-making, and examines how to increase the contribution such research makes to policy- and decision-making processes. By communicating the value and potential of health technology assessment to a wider audience, both within and beyond decision-making and health care management, it aims ultimately to contribute to improve the health status of the population through the delivery of optimum health services.
This book examines the potential role of European Union law in combating poverty and social exclusion in the European Union. Anti-poverty strategies have been part of the European Union agenda for decades. Most saliently, over a decade ago, the EU’s Member States pledged to lift 20 million people out of poverty. In spite of this commitment, the EU did not even meet a quarter of this target, and over 113 million people still were at risk of poverty and social exclusion by the end of 2020. This book addresses the incongruence between a quite developed EU policy strategy and a well-embedded legal objective on the one hand, and the lack of direct legal action on the other. Analysing the role of social policy instruments, fundamental rights, and the constitutional framework of the European Union, it makes a detailed case for a contribution of EU law to the policy objective of combating poverty and social exclusion. Drawing on work in law, politics, social policy and economics, this book will interest scholars and policymakers in the areas of EU law, labour and social security, human rights, political science and social and public policy.
Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Topic: History of Inernational Relations, grade: 2,0, University of Bamberg, language: English, abstract: As part of the Lisbon Strategy of 2000 the Union set forth a new strategy for achieving the ambitious goals of becoming “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” until the year 2010. Through incorporation of iterative benchmarking processes to assess progress in achieving the objectives set forth by the EU on the national level, mutual learning among member states and mobilization of actors across many levels – EU, national and sub-national levels – the OMC represented a novel approach to governance in the EU. Because the environment in which the OMC is applied, the multiple actors it involves across multiple levels, as well as the challenge of correctly placing it among other soft-law measures and the existing tool set of the EU institutions the literature in OMC research is equally complex. Contributions to OMC research emanate from many researchers across different fields of science, such as economists, legal scholars, sociologists and political scientists that have brought forth analyses looking at the topic from various angles. These include the OMC as a New Mode of Governance, a form of Policy Learning and Europeanisation and as a motor of European Integration. Taking this complexity into account and given the limited ability of this specific type of essay it seems necessary to concentrate on a few specific aspects. This work will thus limit its time frame – from the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy in 2000 until the overhaul it received with the introduction of ‘Europe 2020’ in 2010 at most – and discuss the case of the United Kingdom (UK) with regard to the possible impact the OMC has had on social policy and the way in which different levels of government and non-government actors have been involved. How has the Open Method of Co-Ordination influenced social policy in the United Kingdom and has it been able to involve a wider array of actors in the process?